With the possible introduction of national ID cards in Australia come many questions. What would the card contain? How would the card be used as a means of identifying Australians? What if my card is stolen or lost or I throw it away?

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone says the card won’t be useful unless it contains biometric information like a fingerprint and “you do need to be able to say the person who’s got this card standing in front of me is the person to whom this card was issued”.

If the card holds all of your information including biometrics, then if it fell into the wrong hands it could be used against you. There are technologies capable of replicating fingerprints. So, if someone wanted to steal your identity, then getting their hands on your card would be a good start. Not only would they have all of your personal info but they would have a digital version of your fingerprints.

Then, there is the possibility that if you lose the card you may be detained as a suspected illegal immigrant. Certainly, in Cornelia Rau’s case, the card would have been of no use as she more than likely would have thrown hers away in attempt to prevent people finding out who she was. She would still have been detained.

In what would be considered an attempt to protect your information, it is more likely the card would not contain any of your information but instead an ID number which could be cross-referenced with a central database containing all of your information. You could then provide a thumb print to prove you are the legitimate card holder.

But this begs another question: If all of your information is on a central database and you have to be physically present to be identified, why can’t you just provide your thumbprint to prove who you are? And, if so, why is the card needed at all?

In fact, there are other issues. One has already been raised by Queensland Council of Civil Liberties president Michael Cope who has said the creation of a single identity database would be a target for hackers.

“It makes it easier by accumulating all the data in one place and if you’re sufficiently technologically sophisticated you break in from a computer system and you can pinch anybody’s ID,” Mr Cope said. In other words: don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

Another issue is that of the government keeping our fingerprints on file. “In the past, we’ve looked at fingerprinting as happening if you’re a criminal,” Minister Vanstone has said. So, now your fingerprints may be kept on file regardless of whether you are a criminal.

National Party’s Senator Barnaby Joyce has been quoted as saying that the thought of a central database backed by biometrics “sounds almost Orwellian”.

Joyce has said further that he will continue to oppose government intrusion into the lives of private citizens, just as he did in 1987 when then-opposition leader John Howard led a campaign against the Hawke government’s Australia Card proposal.

No doubt the government will continue to use possible terrorist threats in Australia to aid in the cards introduction, even though it’s hard to imagine how national ID cards would have helped preventing the London suicide bomb attacks.